Palm Pre to get price cut; remote app deletion on the cards
The price of the Palm Pre is reportedly dropping by 25 percent in an apparent attempt to boost sales. The reports come as leaked copies of a software update show Palm may be considering remote deletion of apps.
Brighthand reports that a Sprint price list shows the Pre dropping from $200 to $150 Wednesday. The same requirements for a two-year contract will remain, and the headline price continues to be available only after a mail-in rebate.
According to the site, the price cut is a response to disappointing sales and is an attempt to discover whether the Pre was overpriced given its competition. It follows a pricing error at Best Buy earlier this summer where the device was briefly on sale for $99.
Meanwhile a glitch with Palm’s updating system meant one user who was attempting to restore their handset mistakenly got their hands on webOS 1.2, a currently unreleased version of the device’s operating system.
Enthusiasts have been looking through the system and have found several features which are presumably planned for future updates. These include support for developers to sell rather than give away applications through Palm’s official App Catalog, and the potential for credit card transactions through the device.
There’s also a new feature which uses the LEDs in the gesture area of the touchscreen as a way of indicating notifications such as new messages or missed calls. That would certainly be useful for people who leave their phone attended or prefer not to use vibrate mode while in meetings.
The system also includes a file which produces the phrase “Palm had to delete this application from the App Catalog and your device. If you paid for this app, your money will be refunded.”
In the wake of the controversy over Amazon remotely deleting copies of 1984 from Kindles after the book turned out to still be in copyright in the US, the idea of remote deletion of apps isn’t going down to well. While there are perfectly legitimate uses for such a capability, such as removing apps which have been discovered to be malware, Palm will need to make it very clear when and how it would use such a feature.
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September 8th, 2009
iPhone & Android both already have app kill capability so this is nothing new or inherently evil on Palm’s part. It provides a way for Palm to remotely remove an app that has been determined to be harmful to the device (malware, for example) or to remove an app that is later shown to be in violation of copyright or patent law.